Carlos Ocampo is on the rise. The 26-year-old Mexican player is 34-1 (23 KOs). He won his last ten matches, nine by knockout. He is rated at 154 pounds by the WBC. All of which is why he received a crack in front of front-runner Sebastian Fundora on Saturday in Carson, California.
However, most of the questions he raised during a recent virtual press conference focused on his sole loss more than 4 years ago.
Ocampo was stopped by a body pass from welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr that kept him from continuing in the final seconds of the opening round of their June 2018 match, a remarkable finish. disappointed for the momentum he has built over six years. a professional person.
He did a great job of rebuilding but couldn’t shake the failure.
“Listen, I made a rookie mistake,” Ocampo said through an interpreter. “There were about three seconds left in the first round and I was careless. … I should have done it, it shouldn’t have happened, but I’ve moved forward and better for it.”
Ocampo returned to middleweight just two months after losing to Spence, kicking off a streak of success that has brought him back into the rankings.
10 of his first 12 victories were over mediocre opposition in Mexico. He then beat capable Canadian Mikael Zewski in nine rounds this past March in Quebec and stopped Vicente Martin Rodriguez in one round in June in Anaheim, California.
Ocampo feels he’s ready for “The Towering Inferno,” the tough 6-foot-5 Fundora.
“I think the last two games are huge for me,” he said. “They both [minor] title match… one in Canada, one in the United States. It was exactly what I needed to get where I wanted to be.”
Of course, Ocampo wants one more world championship title. And he feels he’s in a better position to win one than he did when he fought Spence.
He was only 22 years old when he challenged Spence; He said he is more mature now, both physically and mentally. He has experience fighting on the biggest stage, against Spence. And, again, he learned firsthand what can happen when you let your guard down.
“The biggest lesson I learned was that I have to be more brainy, to think about things more,” he said. “… Just a second of being careless in the ring, you can pay a very heavy price for it. It was a difficult lesson, but necessary to learn.
“I won’t make that mistake again. Lesson learned, I can assure you of that.”
